Has it ever puzzled you that company leaders and human resources departments find it so difficult to keep employees engaged? Makes me. Why? Because since the 1920s there has been evidence of what people want and need to participate in work. There was a study conducted by industrial psychologists in conjunction with Western Electric to find out what makes people feel engaged and produces better and more results. It was eventually named “The Hawthorne Effect” because these studies were conducted at the Hawthorne Works manufacturing plant. So what were the studies and what were the effects?

One study focused on the lighting of work areas. Slight changes in the amount of light actually affected worker productivity. It didn’t matter if the lighting was brighter or darker, each time the lighting changed, the productivity of the workers increased.

Another study had to do with the rise and fall of jobs. Workers were first told that recent studies showed that raising the height of the workstation increased productivity. And he did. They came back later and said another study showed that lowering the workstation increases productivity. And he did. Finally, they said another study showed that returning the workstation to its original level increases productivity. Guess what? Did!

What does all this mean for leaders and HR departments? Despite the criticisms of “The Hawthorne Effect,” there are some very real and actionable results. For example, neuroscience has the acronym SCARF, which stands for Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relationship, and Equity. SCARF is a much more current theory of motivation than is taught in college and university courses still today. Neuroscientists know that those five elements are what keep people engaged because they are some of the most basic needs. Unlike Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which is multi-tiered and says that the lower-level need must be met before moving to the higher levels of need, neuroscience says that the needs must be met in a different way. There may be times when only one need needs to be met, other times when multiple needs need to be met, and times when all needs need to be met at the same time. This is similar to “6 Human Needs” by Tony Robbins and NLP.

Other learning is also taken from neuroscience. The human mind is always on the lookout for what’s next. For example, have you seen how easily we have become addicted to our smartphones, email, social media, etc.? We say we want to put these things aside, yet we can’t seem to wait for the next “ding”! alerting us that new information has just arrived on our smartphone, tablet, laptop or computer. Having all this information continually coming in is like a dog surrounded by 100 squirrels! Whatever moves next will be hunted! How does this relate to employee engagement? Like “The Hawthorne Effect,” leaders and HR departments must realize that the tools used for motivation do not have to be “great.” Another study put a dime in a copier in the office. Psychologists measured the level of happiness that people had after leaving the copier when there was a penny, which they took, and those who left the copier when there was no penny. Those who saw and took the dime were “significantly” happier! Think of your children. You could buy them a $ 100 toy and what would they spend the most time playing with? Box!

Finally, the most recent salary studies show that a person does not become happier than when he earns $ 50,000 per year. What changes are the things that make them happy, but without increasing happiness itself. I think HR leaders and departments complicate the issue too much. As you can see from what I wrote above, it is actually very simple.